Cheating and advanced business education

2052007

The idea of advanced business education is to heighten and magnify understanding of facts and their relationships, develop and evaluate concepts and practices in order to achieve something new or more efficient.

The news from Duke University about a cheating scandal in the business school, brings to mind some very serious questions about MBA programs and continuing business education.

Who is going to business school to learn and who is going to get the title?

How important is it for companies to have employees that are/were first in their class, or in the top 20?

How should an MBA business school react to cheating?

MBA candidates and graduate business students are the “top of the line” future leaders and managers of business in the future. What messages are we sending about morals and ethics in our society when cheating is tolerated, lightly punished or severely punished?

Is this a sign of failure of the school, failure of the students, or the reality that shortcuts and cheating are required in order to get ahead in our current business environment?